Center camp can be the BEST place to experience burning man. Who was
that crazy person who challenged people to fencing matches in the early morning hours? Wasnt it GREAT when the rangers accepted an invitation
to a bout? All apologies to the yoga people..... As for the alleged surliness
of coffee servers, heck they were polite to me, sword wielding fool that I am. Maybe a dueling tradition at BM would salve the few negative altercations that arise. Go ahead, toss down that gauntlet and have at each other with swords!

My brother and I are stickfighters. We fight full contact with rattan sticks wearing only a fencing mask, thin street hockey gloves, and groin cup. Thursday or Friday night we showed up at Thunderdome, hoping to do a fight (without the harnesses). We were denied by several DeathGuild people who insisted that it would be "too dangerous!" You'd think they'd be interested in seeing some real action, but I guess they're more about the show than actual combat.

So we just walked a little ways away and had our own fight next to their dome. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but a small crowd turned around from the "main event" to watch us. At one point a completely clueless couple strolled right between us during the fight, not paying the slightest bit of attention and almost had their skulls caved in.